SUBSCRIBE:

Political party supporters attack editor, vandalise media house in Nepal

Share

(Freedom Forum/IFEX) - Freedom Forum was shocked to learn that some 30 individuals stormed the offices of Nepal Republic Media at Sundhara in the capital city of Kathmandu, on the afternoon of 20 December 2012. Nepal Republic Media is the publisher of the Nagarik and Republica dailies, and Sukrabar weekly.

The assailants, who later claimed they belonged to the Shiva Sena Nepal political party, stormed the office, verbally abused the receptionist, snapped the telephone wire and broke windows.

Talking to Freedom Forum's Media Monitoring Desk, Gyan Neupane, a reporter with Nagarik, said, "The unidentified persons entered the office and began mistreating the gatekeepers and the receptionists; they then attacked the Chief Editor of the Nagarik daily, Kishor Nepal, reporters Sudarshan Sapkota, Rupesh Acharya and Rajendra Gyawali and other staff members."

However, luckily no one was injured as the police arrived on the scene and took control of the situation, said Neupane. He noted that the hooligans questioned the staff about photographs which had been published in Sukrabar.

Freedom Forum vehemently condemns the incident as a sheer violation of press freedom. If the assailants had any reservations regarding the content of the published images, they could have taken legal recourse as an independent body, the Press Council of Nepal, exists and is tasked with monitoring media content.

The way the attack was carried out impacts on journalists' right to professional security and will encourage self-censorship among journalists. Therefore, Freedom Forum strongly demands the concerned authority to bring to book the culprits as soon as possible.

In a separate development, Freedom Forum is dismayed to learn that the government is planning to enforce the media policy-2012 drafted last January.

According to Freedom Forum, this is not the proper time to implement the media policy because there is neither parliamentary nor political consensus in the country. The national political situation is experiencing a rift and there is no congenial atmosphere for an election.

"At a time when there is no new Constitution in the country and the government is being criticized by all sectors for its failure to gain people's confidence, bringing in a new policy without broader consensus would be disastrous," said Freedom Forum Chairperson Taranath Dahal.

By virtue, the government's attention should be focused on framing the main law of the country. Without the promulgation of a new Constitution, there will be no chance for effective implementation of other laws and policies. Moreover, the media policy does not meet international standards; rather it follows a policy of state-control policy over the media which will obviously jeopardize the liberal and democratic media. Needless to mention, the process of drafting this policy lacked multi-sector participation and ownership.

Therefore, Freedom Forum concludes that the present caretaker government should not enforce the media policy at this time. It should ensure that the policy lives to up to international standards and wait for a more suitable time for implementation.

Key reports and information

(*The As the world is marking World Press Freedom Day today (May 3, 2015), Nepali media is grief-stricken, mourning over the deaths of thousands of Nepalis with slim hopes of finding anyone alive nine days after the destructive earthquake. Freedom Forum normally marks this day with the production of a report on press freedom across the country and other programs. But, this time, this report on 'media in a disaster' is unavoidable.

The 100-page report shows that Tibetan refugee communities in Nepal are now facing a de facto ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali security forces.

Attacks:

Key reports and information

In 2014 Cambodian journalists increasingly found themselves in the news, as reporters faced injury and even death for covering the news. 2014 proved the deadliest year for Cambodian journalists since the political turmoil of 1997, with two Cambodian journalists confirmed murdered in relation to their work and a third, foreign journalist found dead under suspicious circumstances.

Press freedom in the Philippines continued to be under attack from 2014 to 2015. The killing of journalists is continuing, with four journalists killed from May 2014 to May 2015. The trial of the accused masterminds of the Ampatuan (Maguindanao) Massacre and their supposed henchmen is continuing, but with a primary accused was released, while a witness in the same case was killed.

The first months of 2014 saw a continuation of the political unrest that rocked the capital city of Phnom Penh in the months following the disputed July 2013 national elections. Political protests continued throughout the city in 2014 as the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) boycotted its National Assembly seats over alleged widespread irregularities in the previous year’s election, which maintained control of the legislative body under the Cambodian People’s Party, and its long-ruling leader Prime Minister Hun Sen, who in 2014 marked 30 years as head of state.

As the election looms for later this year, incidents in 2014 and in early 2015 involving the press raises serious questions on the genuineness of media freedom in Burma. The situation is alarming as the state seems to have heaped all the faults and fines on the media in the past year, which has seen a media worker being killed in October on the pretext of national security. International assistance has poured into the country to develop the media aimed at lifting and sustaining the state of media freedom. However, a viable press freedom environment seems unlikely to materialise in Burma before the end of this administration.

Highly publicized murders of journalists heighten awareness of the grave dangers that reporters and photographers face around the world. Less widely known are the myriad other risks to journalists, including imprisonment, cyberattacks, harassment, frivolous lawsuits, and censorship.

The media in Tripura is still dependent on the government for financial help, giving them an unprecedented upper hand to control press freedom in the state. As long as the political party in power is satisfied, the media is deemed to be okay otherwise there is an incredible pressure on the journalists as they have to not only endure insults but also face demotion in rank as well as being refused accreditation. - See more at: https://samsn.ifj.org/media-in-north-eastern-state-of-tripura/#sthash.0GypROMb.dpuf

Despite protecting human rights defenders (“HRDs”) falling under the protection of legally binding international instruments, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR”), many HRDs in the Kingdom of Cambodia (“Cambodia”) remain at high risk of a plethora of threats including arbitrary arrest and detention, physical violence and murder, and threats and intimidation and harassment.

Political intolerance, activities of fundamentalists and drug trafficking groups, government impunity, and the continued existence and application of repressive speech laws, continue to limit FoE rights in many countries of the region.

The year under review has been the darkest for press freedom for several decades, with the media coming under relentless assault from several directions. There have been attacks on journalists, sackings and personnel changes affecting critical personalities and the withdrawal of advertising, which places pressure on the editorial integrity of publications.

This report documents 45 cases from Caracas and three states, involving more than 150 victims, in which security forces have abused the rights of protesters and other people in the vicinity of demonstrations.

IFEX publishes original and member-produced free expression news and reports. Some member content has been edited by IFEX. We invite you to contact [email protected] to request permission to reproduce or republish in whole or in part content from this site.